1849 SIGNED 1st HORACE MANN Ed. Reformer FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS U.S. Congress

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1849 SIGNED 1st HORACE MANN Ed. Reformer FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS U.S. Congress:
$53.35

An historic offering.

Mann inscribes his most important work. 1849. 1st/1st.

Horace Mann (1796-1859), “The Father of the Common School Movement.”

Horace Mann, (born May 4, 1796, Franklin, Mass., U.S.—died Aug. 2, 1859, Yellow Springs, Ohio), U.S. educator, the first great American advocate of public education, who believed that, in a democratic society, education should be free and universal, nonsectarian, democratic in method, and reliant on well-trained, professional teachers.

In addition to being a vocal promoter of universal and free public education, Horace Mannwas also an outspoken abolitionist. He wrote several pieces against slavery, many of which are included in his Slavery: Letters and Speeches from 1851. Seven years after writing this letter, he was elected to fill the Congressional seat left vacant by the death of John Quincy Adams. From his very first speech as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, Mann spoke out against slavery in Congress.

At sale...

The Massachusetts system of common schools : being an enlarged and rev. ed of the Tenth annual report of the first secretary of the Massachusetts board of education

Massachusetts. Board of Education; Mann, Horace, 1796-1859

Published by Dutton and Wentworth, State Printers, 1849.

1st/1st. Thick: 212pp. Disbound. Very Good condition. Light overall wear. 8vo. Approx. 6 x 9\". Square; straight; tight; clean; etc. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR.

Inscribed by Horace Mann, to Title Page.

About the author/inscribor...

Horace Mann (1796-1859), “The Father of the Common School Movement,” was the foremost proponent of education reform in antebellum America. An ardent member of the Whig Party, Mann argued that the common school, a free, universal, non-sectarian, and public institution, was the best means of achieving the moral and socioeconomic uplift of all Americans. The reform movement he led sought to create the virtuous republican citizenry needed to sustain American political institutions, the educated workforce required to expand the American economy, and the disciplined generation necessary to forestall the social disorders so common in American cities in the decades before the Civil War.

Brother-in-law of Nathaniel Hawthorne and close friend of Samuel Gridley Howe, Mann was well connected to the cultural and political elite of New England. Mann held numerous political offices in Massachusetts state government in 1820s and 1830s, and he represented Massachusetts as an anti-slavery Whig in the House of Representatives from 1848 to 1853, taking the seat vacated by the death of John Quincy Adams.

The most influential post he occupied, however, was that of Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. From that pulpit, to which he was appointed in 1837, Mann would spread the gospel of education as social redemption. The common school would mitigate class conflict, circumvent anarchy, enhance civic engagement, and perhaps most importantly inculcate moral habits, all by molding society’s most malleable members. Like his friend Howe, Mann was a Unitarian, and his inclusion of the Bible in school curriculum was based on Unitarian doctrine. Children were to be exposed to the words and moral teachings of the Bible but would not be indoctrinated to any specific denomination. Such openness merely reflected the liberal theology of his Unitarianism. The orthodox Congregationalists of New England opposed many of Mann’s reforms.

Mann’s ideas reached far beyond the borders of the Bay State. A national spokesman for education reform, he wrote numerous books and founded and edited The Common School Journal, a periodical that successful spread the message that public schools should be more open and nurturing, with a wider curriculum delivered by professional teachers. He visited Massachusetts schools to determine their needs and went to Europe in 1843 to research educational institutions there. He was especially impressed with the school system existing in Prussia, including the Prussian approach to educating deaf children.

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